Statoil to build Arctic oil terminal

Norwegian energy company Statoil ASA says it plans to build a new oil terminal on the country's Arctic coast to process oil from a recent discovery in the Barents Sea.

Statoil chose a development concept Tuesday that envisions transporting oil from the Skrugard field, which is expected to come on stream in 2018, through a 174-mile (280-kilometer) pipeline to the new terminal outside Honningsvaag, on Norway's northern tip.

Statoil vice president Oeystein Michelsen says the project "may spark off a new industrial era" in northern Norway.

In 2011 the company announced large oil finds in the Skrugard and nearby Havis fields in the Barents Sea, which is seen as Norway's new frontier for offshore oil and gas. Statoil says production is expected to reach almost 200,000 barrels per day.